Definitely one of my favorites from this season. It will remain #1 or #2 depending on how The Eccentric Family ends. Overall, it's been fun watching Hachiken move from a timid and unsure teen to someone a bit more sure about himself. And poor Aki. Does she even realize yet? Her dad does. :)

Personally, I think Hachi's "dream" will end up being in either food processing or cooking/chef. He's got the talent and has respect for where food comes from; unlike his brother. I wonder what's going to happen with the care package he sent home?

Sad to see it over so soon, but it's a short wait until January. :)
8/10

There's something not right with Komaba here, but he is keeping Hachiken out of the loop about it. If there was one person he could turn to, it would be him, but nope. And LOL about that bra. Not for Mikage, but for the cow. Anyway, things are picking off right where last season left off in a great way.

Really good first episode. Not as good as Chu2's, but still damn good. Shows the advantages second seasons can have when they don't need to explain anything.

Something is wrong with Komaba, though. And seeing how Mikage was crying and how Komaba said Hachiken can't do anything about it even if he was told about it......could it be that Komaba's family lost their farm, or will lose their farm?

Also can't wait to see what is up with that puppy and the hot horse rider with the hair drills.

Anyway, it looks like the thing here is Mikage's not letting others get too close to her by keeping them from getting involved with stuff they are not directly involved with. And by "they", I mean Hachiken. For what it's worth, though, she does seem to appreciate how he's concerned about her, once again by telling him about how horses will limp over to a fallen rider and implying that Hachiken is like that, too.

As for what might have happened between Mikage and Komaba (no actual spoilers, just my guess):

Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide

I have a feeling that what happened involves a traffic accident; there's just something about how she mentioned that last and the way she said it. Maybe I'm just imagining things, though.

On another note, I rather liked the moment where Hachiken got the text message from his mom about the bacon.